EMSD Quarterly Newsletter – Q1 2025

Dear members of EMSD,

We are excited to share our division’s second quarterly newsletter for the first quarter of 2025. If you missed our last letter, you can find it here: https://ceramics.org/acers-spotlight/emsd-quarterly-newsletter-q4-2024/.

In this letter, we would like to bring your kind attention to (1) EMSD seeking for symposium organizers at the ACerS Spring Meeting and (2) call for nominations for EMSD division awards.

During the first quarter of 2025, the division has developed in the following aspects:

1. The conference programming for the MS&T25 is ongoing

• At the MS&T25 to be held on September 28-October 1, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio, EMSD will sponsor two symposia: (1) Ceramic Materials for Nuclear Energy System and (2) Energy Materials for Sustainable Development.
• The symposium (2) will mainly focus on the topics of Thermoelectrics and Electrochemical Energy Storage.
• Our new, expanded Program Committee is doing a great job on securing keynote and invited speakers.
• Our keynote speakers who have agreed to present at out symposium are:
  • Professor Takao Mori, NIMS, Japan (for the topic Thermoelectrics)
  • Professor Shirley Meng, University of Chicago/ANL, USA (for the topic Electrochemical Energy Storage)

• Our invited speakers who have agreed to present at out symposium include (this list is still growing):
  • Thermoelectrics: Takayoshi Katase (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan), Doug Crane (DTP Thermoelectrics, USA), Takamasa Hirai (NIMS, Japan), Ahrong Jeong (Hokkaido University, Japan), Xueyan Song (West Virginia University, USA), Akira Nagaoka (Miyazaki University, Japan), Masashi Kurosawa (Nagoya University, Japan), Aichi Yamashita (Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan), Tanmoy Maiti (IIT Kanpur, India), and Takahiro Yamada (Tohoku University, Japan).
  • Electrochemical Energy Storage: Takashi Teranishi (Okayama University, Japan), Amy Marschilok (Stony Brook University, USA), Bruce Dunn (UCLA, USA), Feng Lin (Virginia Tech, USA), Tongchao Liu (Argonne National Laboratory, USA), Cadance Chan (Arizona State University, USA), Hillary Smith (Swarthmore College, USA), Xuefei Li (Georgia State University, USA), Juhyeon Ahn (University of Wyoming, USA), Yan-Yan Hu (Florida State University, USA), Shintaro Yasui (Institute of Science Tokyo, Japan), and Palani Balaya (National University of Singapore, Singapore).

2. We encourage you to join us at MS&T25!

• If you would like to network with us or with our keynote and invited speakers, joining us at MS&T25 will be a great opportunity.
• EMSD looks forward to meeting you at our two symposia at MS&T25.

3. We are co-sponsoring at PACRIM16 & GOMD2025

• The division’s supplemental fund granted by the ACerS in 2025 will be spent to co-sponsor one or two symposia at the 16^th Pacific Rim Conference on Ceramic and Glass Technology and the Glass & Optical Materials Division Meeting.
• We are currently contacting some symposium organizers and wish to support their student participants by giving travel grants.
• We hope such co-sponsorship will help our division to reach prospective members among the next-generation scientists.

4. Call for symposium organizers in the ACerS Spring Meeting

• The first ACerS Spring Meeting is schedule on April 12-16, 2026 in Bellevue, WA. EMSD is actively participating in organizing one or two symposia at the spring meeting.
• We hence are looking for prospective organizers to lead the organization of EMSD-sponsored symposia at the meeting.
• As an organizer, you have the freedom to choose the focused topic within the division’s scope, including harvesting, conversion, storage, transport and utilization of energy.
• As an organizer, you will also join our Program Committee, from which we elect our succeeding division leaders.
• If you are interested in becoming one of our organizers, please contact the division leaders at your earliest convenience, ideally no later than March 21, 2025.

5. We are preparing for a larger, mid-term online division meeting

• In spring 2025, we plan invite the entire EMSD community to attend our division meeting.
• The mid-term meeting will offer an opportunity to our division members to get involved in the discussion about issues concerning the members’ expectations on the division’s service.
• The mid-term meeting will be a supplementary platform to the annual business meeting that is held in person at MS&T.

6. Call for nominations for the division awards

• EMSD confers the OSR (outstanding student researcher) award annually. The awardee is granted up to USD 1000 as a travel support to deliver an invited talk at one of the division’s symposia. The deadline is August 1, 2025. For details, see https://ceramics.org/award/outstanding-student-researcher-award-energy-materials-and-systems-division/.
• EMSD supports students and early-career researchers (e.g., postdocs and new faculties) to attend conferences by providing up to USD 500 per person as a stipend. The division gives multiple stipends annually. The deadline is September 1, 2025. For details, see https://ceramics.org/award/student-stipend-for-acers-annual-meeting-mst-energy-materials-and-systems-division/.
• EMSD confers the D. T. Rankin award to members who have provided outstanding service to the division. The awardee will give a plenary talk dedicated to the award at one of the division’s symposia. The call for nominations is open. Please contact the division leaders for details.

7. Call for divisional activities

• EMSD supports the members to organize activities such as webinars and podcasts of which the topics are within the scope of the division.
• Please feel encouraged to contact the division leaders if you are willing to propose and organize such activities.

8. GGRN is the opportunity to get free membership with us!

• EMSD sponsors Ph.D. students to join the ACerS with waived membership fees in the first two years and for a half price in the following two years.
• Don’t hesitate to introduce this opportunity to your peers! Contact the division leaders for more information.

9. Senior members, get nominated for the society fellow through our division!

• If you would like to be nominated for the society fellow, please feel free to discuss with us and the division will be happy to nominate you if are deemed qualified after our internal evaluation.

10. Joining our new Program Committee is the chance to get elected to the executive committee!

• EMSD is expanding its Program Committee dedicated to organizing the division’s symposia.
• The Program Committee is expected to significantly diversify the topics of the division’s symposia, as specific symposia will be defined and organized by the Program Committee members.
• The succeeding Program Committee Chair will be elected from the Program Committee annually. The Program Committee Chair will be promoted to the Secretary, the Vice-Chair, and eventually the Chair with a one-year term at each position, consecutively.
• The new Program Committee is open to all the division members. Join our Program Committee, organize symposia on topics of your own interests, and be elected to get the opportunity to steer the development of the division in the near future!
• Contact the division leaders for more information.

11. Tell us your story!

• Do you want your recent activities or research results within the scope of EMSD to be included in the division’s upcoming quarterly newsletters? Contact us and we will seek opportunities to highlight your story!

We wish you a wonderful first quarter of 2025!

Yang Bai, on behalf of the EMSD executive committee